Quantum Sailors Go One and Two in Close International Star Class World Championship

In a race that many are calling one of the closest contests in the history of the International Star World Championships, the Quantum® teams of Robert Stanjek and Frithjof Kleen of Germany and Diego Negri and Sergio Lambertenghi of Italy finished first and second in Malcesine, Italy this past weekend.

Stanjek and Kleen led by ten points going into the last day of racing. They started conservatively but failed to get into good pressure, dropping into sixteenth position. Negri and Lambertenghi took advantage, playing the shifts well to take the lead at the first bottom mark. By the end of the third leg, both teams were in contention, with Negri and Lambertenghi finishing well ahead of the fleet, but Stanjek and Kleen’s original lead and a final push at the end were enough to secure the win. They are the fourth German team to win the International Star Class World Championship, finishing two points ahead of Negri and Lembertenghi.

After the race, Kleen told Star World, “We made a mistake on the first beat and put ourselves under a lot of pressure. The first downwind leg was very one-sided and we had little opportunity to make any gains, but a good second beat put us back in contention. We really didn’t know the overall position on the final downwind leg, so we concentrated on taking twelfth position, which we thought would be enough. We dared not believe it when we crossed the line, but when [we] were told that our provisional result had been enough, we were so delighted. We came second in 2011, so to win this year has finished that feeling.”

Quantum teams took five of the top ten places in a fleet of eighty-seven boats. Congratulations to everyone!